minister he would choose to be beside him at the last, and we shall see each man’s last choice.  They did so, when to their astonishment it was discovered that they had all written the same minister’s name!  I do not know that they all went to his church every Sabbath while they were young and, well, and not yet under sentence of death.  I do not think they did.  For when I was in his church there was only a handful of old and decayed-looking people in it.  The chief part of the congregation seemed to me to be a charity school.  And I gathered from all that a lesson—­several lessons, and this among the rest—­that crowded passages do not always wait upon the best pastors; and this also, that a waft of death soon discovers to us a true minister from an incompetent and a counterfeit minister.

3.  Writing to one of his correspondents about his correspondent’s long-drawn-out deathbed, Samuel Rutherford said to him, “It is long-drawn-out that you may have ample time to go over all your old letters and all your still unsettled accounts before you take ship.”  Have you any such old letters lying still unanswered?  Have you any such old accounts lying still unsettled?  Have you made full reparation and restitution for all that you and yours have done amiss?  Fore-fancy that you will soon be summoned into His presence who has said:  “herefore, if thou bring thy gift before the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.  Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him.”  You know all about Zacchaeus.  I need not tell his story over again.  But as I write these lines I take up a London newspaper and my eyes light on these lines:  “William Avary was a man of remarkable gifts, both of mind and character.  He dedicated the residue of his strength wholly to works of piety.  In middle age he failed in business, and in his old age, when better days came, he looked up such of his old creditors as could be found and divided among them a sum of several thousand pounds.”  Look up such of your old creditors as you can find, and that not in matters of money alone.  And, be sure you begin to do it now, before the horn blows.  For, as sure as you take your keys and open your old repositories, you will come on things you had completely forgotten that will take more time and more strength, ay, and more resources, than will then be at your disposal.  Even after you have begun at once and done all that you can do, you will have to do at last as Samuel Rutherford told George Gillespie to do:  “Hand over all your bills, paid and unpaid, to your Surety.  Give Him the keys of the drawer, and let Him clear it out for Himself after you are gone.”